The offensive by doctors against the framework statute for healthcare professionals promoted by the Ministry of Health has intensified with the call for a strike by physicians starting in October. Meanwhile, the unions will try to halt the initiative led by Minister Mónica García during the parliamentary process.
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Seven regional unions have announced an indefinite strike during a conference held this morning in Madrid in response to the recent approval by the Council of Ministers of the draft new framework statute for public health personnel, which will now begin its parliamentary process.
The trade union organizations insist that the new text perpetuates “unfair and discriminatory” working conditions for medical staff. These are Metges de Catalunya (MC), Association of Doctors and Senior Graduates of Madrid (Amyts), Independent Medical Union of Galicia (O’Mega), Medical Union of Galicia (Simega), Avanza Valencia, Medical Employees Union of the Canary Islands (Semca), and the Medical Union of Navarra.
“Achieving a regulatory framework of its own that recognizes the uniqueness, responsibility, and special conditions of training and practice of the profession” is, according to the organizers, the main objective of a nationwide strike that began to take shape before the summer, with the exact start date to be announced shortly.
The exact date of the strike’s start will be announced shortly, according to the unions
Alongside the call, the seven involved organizations have presented the constitution of the Medical and Faculty Union (UMF), a new confederation of medical unions that aims to “provide autonomy and legal capacity to call mobilizations at the national level.”
The UMF, which brings together seven unions from six autonomous communities, represents around 97,000 physicians, 54% of the doctors in the National Health System.
For its part, the Spanish Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM) has announced a reconsideration of the conflict, once the draft framework statute has received the green light from the Council of Ministers and moves to be processed in the Cortes. Thus, this entity will open a round of contacts with political parties demanding that they present total amendments forcing the return of the draft to the Ministry of Health.
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They intend, thus, to initiate “a new real negotiation that takes into account the demands of the medical collective, which remain around a specific negotiation scope for doctors; a real ordinary workday of 35 hours; recognition and compensation for overtime; a comprehensive reform of the on-call system; a professional classification according to the required level of training and responsibility; and a retirement model that considers the specific characteristics of the medical profession.”
Additionally, CESM has a Medical Profession Observatory to understand the situation of the collective within the public health framework. “Spain currently faces a professional deficit caused by working conditions, which generate a brain drain of doctors and unfilled positions, also deepening the overload of those who remain and the differences between the various autonomous communities,” the organization states.
Mónica García does not rule out discussing a negotiation framework with doctors after the approval of the framework statute
She emphasizes, on the other hand, that a framework statute that will directly affect the professional future of nearly 200,000 physicians “cannot be approved without the support of the medical profession and the organizations that represent it.”
The Minister of Health, Monica García, has not ruled out a specific negotiation framework for physicians once the draft framework statute is approved. “It may have room, once the statute for all healthcare professionals is made,” but “not on its ashes, not on the working conditions of the rest, but based on those foundations,” the minister stated.
In response to a parliamentary question from PNV deputy Joseba Andoni Agirretxea, the minister defended the agreement with the unions CC.OO., CSIF, and Satse, “legitimate representatives at the table of this scope,” and invited parliamentary groups to amend the text.
“Laws are debated, amended, approved, or rejected here; they are not approved or rejected in an office,” she said, while Agirretxea highlighted the high likelihood that the draft will be returned to the Government, among other reasons because it lacks an economic report.
